Local

WATERBURY — More than 4,000 unionized workers caring for poor children in the state's Care 4 Kids program are getting more than a 12 percent raise over the next four years, according to a proposed contract agreement.

The groundbreaking, $66 million labor deal is the first contract between the child care workers and the state government since the passage of a 2012 law that permitted the workers to unionize.

Union members are going to vote on ratifying the contract over the next several weeks. If it is ratified, the state legislature must approve the agreement.

The four-year contract provides general wage increases of 3 percent a year. The raises are expected to total $43 million, according to the governor's office.

In addition, the rates paid for caring for children under age 3 for licensed home-based providers will reach parity with licensed child care centers by 2016.

The pact also provides opportunities for professional development, including training, certification and attaining college degrees related to early childhood development.

The administration estimates that these incentives will cost $23 million over the life of the agreement.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy traveled Thursday to Waterbury to announce the agreement along with leaders of the union representing the workers at the Silas Bronson Library.

"This contract represents a shift in public policy that will help provide much needed resources for our state's low-income children and the providers who care for them," said Patrice Peterson, president of CSEA/SEIU Local 2001.

The administration and Local 2001 reported the agreement represents the first raise for workers in the state's Care 4 Kids in 12 years. "This has been a long time coming," Malloy said.

The governor made it possible for the child care workers to unionize.

Malloy issued an executive order during his first year in office that permitted these workers to organize and bargain collectively. He also issued a second order at that time pertaining to personal care attendants paid through the state's Medicaid program.

He signed the two orders three months after legislation to permit these two groups of low-paid workers to bargain collectively died in the General Assembly.

The two orders were unsuccessfully challenged in state court. The challenge came from two conservative groups, several child care providers, a group of disabled individuals and personal care assistants, and two Republican lawmakers.

The challenge was dismissed as moot because the legislature and Malloy had enacted legislation in the 2012 session that ratified and superseded the two orders.

That law states that the child care workers and personal care attendants are not state employees, but grants them many of the same collective bargaining rights and obligations given to state employees.

Malloy offered an answer to opponents of the law and others who question why the state allowed these workers to unionize when it did not have to grant them that opportunity.

"The point is that we need to attract the best folks to this field that we possibly can," he said.

In addition to recruitment, Malloy said it is important that child care workers are able to develop professionally in order to improve early childhood education.

"These family child care providers are often the first teachers a child has outside their home," Peterson said.

Also, the governor said compensating these workers better will reduce turnover.

"Getting somebody up and running and trained and then having them leave for a job that pays just a little bit more money doesn't make sense," he said.

The more than 4,000 workers in the Kid 4 Care program are serving approximately 3,560 children from low-income families.

Malloy reported that the administration expects to conclude negotiations with the union representing approximately 5,000 personal care attendants in the near future.

" All of you who use child care or personal assistants can thank the Democrats for making it cost way more then need be by unionizing these groups. The taxpayers get hit twice by this. Once by having to cough up more for the all the state supported programs like daycare for unwed mother's and people on welfare and Medicaid who need personal assistance with ADLs. A second time by using YOUR MONEY for these raises as an indirect way of buying 9000 additional votes to get or keep Democrats in office, while you haven't seen a raise in years.

There is ONLY one way to correct this problem and that is TO VOTE ALL THE BUMS OUT! Actually there is also another option: Leave CT as others are doing in droves!

And lame brained Malloy and his Democrat cronies wonder why CT is a business unfriendly state and why anyone not on the government dole wants to leave. "

" I spoke to a worker in the food court at CostCo yesterday. She said she and are friends are all moving to NC because it's too expensive here. Oh, that's right, Malloy said the numbers from the moving companies on how many people are leaving the state are just "marketing."

Post a reader comment

We encourage your feedback and dialog. Please be civil and respectful.If you're witty, to the point and quotable, your reader comments may also be included on the Around the Towns page of The Sunday Republican. Readers must be registered and logged in to post comments on the site. Registration is free. Click Here to register.
A Subscription is not required to post comments only a Registration.